He isn't as well-known as Martha Stewart. Of course, maybe
these days, that's a good thing. But if Christopher Lowell, 47,
hasn't become a household name since we last checked in with
him in 2000, he's sure in a lot of households, from his paint
sold on the Home Shopping Network to his bed linens and bath towels
sold at the Burlington Coat Factory. In fact, the items Los
Angeles-based Christopher Lowell Enterprises sells are too numerous
to mention here. Meanwhile, he has two shows on the Discovery
Channel, The Christopher Lowell Show and Interior
Motives, which begat everything. Lowell funded the pilot
himself in 1995 and now employs 75 people (he believes in teamwork
and almost always says "we" instead of "me").
But it's Lowell who's the brand. As he says, "I'm
a classically trained pianist and a good actor, but in America,
I'm known as 'that interior designer guy on TV.'
"

What is the secret to successfully
branding yourself?

Christopher Lowell: I put
together two marketing plans-one was to be branded as a
personality, and the other as a label. If we made that
[personality] connection with the public, we knew that's where
we wanted to go. We wanted to put a face to the project.

We waited several years before we brought the product out. That
was tough, with the offers we were getting early in the game. But
we wanted to build credibility with the public. We knew if we could
effectively do that, when people saw my face on the tag at that
retail outlet, they would recall the impressions they had watching
me on television--they would say "Oh, Christopher's looked
at this, so it must be OK."

But you can't run to the marketplace with a brand that's
going to have emotional attachment to it unless you've spent
time in front of consumers, letting them make a judgment call about
you.

If there's one strategy to employ
before branding yourself, what would that be?

Lowell: Be clear on what the
brand stands for, before you get into deep waters. My brand is
based on telling the truth and saying "Start here; upgrade
later."

A brand must have at least three complete points of distinction
from anything else on the marketplace. You've got to stand for
something-you can't just put out another widget. Your brand
cannot simply be about the personality, because the personality can
come and go. One of the problems with Martha Stewart is that she
branded everything with her specific tastes--outside of the obvious
troubles she has now, if Martha goes, or if she's a bad girl,
it affects her profits. [Laughs.] We expect the Christopher Lowell
brand to last a lot longer than me.